Protests outside the G4S AGM, June 2012. One partial victory up, a lifetime of injustices to go. See second item.
A new vision to tackle poverty
Letter from 36 rabbis and five student rabbis in support of campaigning against poverty and social injustice
The Guardian, June 11/12 2014
In 2005, Make Poverty History campaigned extensively to reduce debt and to call for urgent action for more and better aid in the poorest countries of the world. The goal to close the gap between rich and poor and to eliminate injustice and eradicate poverty is still a long way off internationally, but the campaign succeeded in some measure by beginning to hold governments to account for their promises. In 2014, as religious leaders in the UK, we are deeply disturbed by the conclusions of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission which has said that the government’s goal to reduce absolute child poverty goal is “simply unattainable” (UK’s child poverty goals unattainable, 9 June).
Here on our own doorstep, poverty is harming the health, wellbeing and prospects of children. The report demonstrates that while it is important to help people into work, the goal to reduce or eliminate poverty will not be met while incomes stagnate and the cost of food and housing rise relentlessly. The need to Make Child Poverty History in our own country is now urgent. Jewish values teach that there is nothing in the world more grievous than poverty. The gap between rich and poor is a shameful blot on our society. All of us, from the government down, must have a commitment to renew our vision of a socially responsible society and bring an end to economic injustice. Our task is to ensure that all of us live in dignity and be accorded the fundamental right to a standard of living that is adequate for the health and well-being of their family.
Rabbi Alexandra Wright
Rabbi Charley Baginski
Rabbi Lisa Barrett
Rabbi Miriam Berger
Rabbi Rebecca Q Birk
Rabbi Janet Burden
Rabbi Douglas Charing
Rabbi Howard Cooper
Rabbi Janet Darley
Rabbi Ariel J. Friedlander
Rabbi Anna Gerrard
Rabbi Amanda Golby
Rabbi Aaron Goldstein
Rabbi Andrew Goldstein
Rabbi Harry Jacobi
Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi
Rabbi Richard Jacobi
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner
Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris
Rabbi Yuval Keren
Rabbi Sandra Kviat
Rabbi Daniel Lichman
Rabbi Monique Mayer
Rabbi David Mitchell
Rabbi Lea Muehlstein
Rabbi Jeffrey Newman
Rabbi Rene Pfertzel
Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Rabbi Danny Rich
Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild
Cantor Gershon Silins
Rabbi Mark L. Solomon
Rabbi Larry Tabick
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah
Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers
Rabbi Andrea Zanardo
Student Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen
Student Rabbi Nathan Godleman
Student Rabbi Daniel Lichman
Student Rabbi Zahavit Shalev
Student Rabbi Kath Vardi
Note from Progressive Rabbis in the UK
Progressive Rabbis in the UK – while not necessarily identifying with the campaigning goals of JfJfP – are strong advocates against social injustice both in the UK and in Israel and Palestine. Please see the website of the British Friends for Rabbis for Human Rights to learn about rabbinic support for justice in Israel and Palestine.
Below, the massive Make Poverty History demonstration in Edinburgh, 2005
Hampstead dams, G4S prison equipment, HS2 … still so much to protest about
Most of my friends have spent their lives marching, rallying and boycotting – they’re worn out, but the fight goes on online
By Michele Hanson, Guardian
June 10/11, 2014
What is a “Development Management Forum”? Is it a consultation? I went to one last week, about the silly £15m plan to build dams on Hampstead Heath, while my friend Clayden was protesting about G4S selling prison equipment to Israel. Then he protested on Saturday for Hands off Al Aqsa. But was it worth it? I’m worried that mine wasn’t. The developers seemed to think their dams were in the can, spoke to us as if we were aged 10 and the class dunces, and we may as well have addressed our complaints and suggestions to my dog’s bottom.
Most of my chums have spent their lives protesting. You name it, we’ve done it: sit-downs, boycotts, donations, marches and rallies. We’re still doing it online: signing letters, petitions and more protests, against rape, violence, detention centres, culls, cruelties, racism, pollution, corruption – a torrent of nastiness that never seems to end. No wonder some of us are feeling a bit worn down.
Never too old to keep on:from the Friends of Al Aqsa Facebook page.
“I’ve done teachers, miners, equal pay, civil rights, equal rights, ecology, ban-the-bomb, several wars and the fire brigade,” says Fielding, browned off. “I’m not rabid. I just want things to get a bit better. But they don’t, so I’ve given up. I’ve wasted my life. Everything I fought for has failed. The world has only lurched further into everything I didn’t want.”
That seems a bit wet, but Rosemary’s not putting up much of a fight either. All she has done is joined a preparation meeting for a protest over HS2, to decide whether to protest or not. Because HS2 keeps changing its mind and she’s no longer sure what she’s protesting about.
But Clayden has more hope. Because G4S has promised to stop supplying Israel with grisly equipment within three years, even if its security chaps were a bit rough with some shareholders. And a judicial review is looming for the dams. That’s one-and-a-half wins. So chins up everyone. Clayden plans to go down fighting. So do I. We will fight them in the parks, we will fight them in the shareholders’ meetings, we will fight them on Twitter …
Below: and never too young to start a life of protest. Here New York Jews demonstrate against a pro-settler meeting taking place in NY City, November 2013. From Jews Say No: Not in our Name.
